Nice

I just got back from a very pleasant 5 mile run in sunny Chatham. It was in the upper 40s with a bit of a wind out of the south but I went out and ran in a long sleeve shirt, shorts and a ball cap and broke a sweat. I wore a watch for the first time in a long time and covered my five in 41:04 with splits of 8:18, 8:26, 16:24, and 7:56. I felt good after beating the crap out of myself the last few weeks with calisthenics and stuff to get the hammy and the right knee fixed up. I wish it was like this all winter.

Merry Christmas

I just want to wish my readers, all five of you, a Merry Christmas.

I got about 7 pair of Gap underwear (and they're not labeled Monday thru Sunday), a $30 gift card to Best Buy, a George Carlin (RIP) calendar, a long-sleeve Nike technical shirt and a new pair of InSport lightweight running tights. But best of all is that I get to sit around with my family and watch Nathan play with his toys.

Happy Holidays!

Mamma Mia

I was a good husband and rented "Mamma Mia" for my wife last night since we watched "Hancock" the night before that. I don't mind the occasional chick flick or musical but I was hesitant to watch a movie version of a musical based on ABBA music. (Cringe.)

I consoled myself with the fact that Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and the guy who played Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi Master in "The Phantom Menace" were in it and that they don't usually suck.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason I'm not a huge fan of musicals is this: I cannot suspend disbelief enough to accept that people are spontaneously bursting into song because they're in love, angry, horny or drunk.

Well, I guess I could believe it when someone is drunk.

I also get freaked out when they have a conversation in song and when bystanders in the crowd sing back-up (especially when they're "ahhhh, do wop, do wop" back-up singing). If someone started singing "sha doobie do-wop" when I was having an argument with my wife or singing about how much I love vanilla flavored Silk I would run screaming to the nearest psych ward.

I left the room periodically to preserve my sanity (and listen to something that wasn't ABBA) but thought that the movie was decent and that I won't be buying it anytime soon.

Season Recap

Top-Times for 2008

Mile: 5:21 PB (previously 5:27)
Two Miles: 11:59.68
5K: 19:22
5 Miles: 33:00 PB (previously 33:39)
10K: 41:30 PB (previously 42:06)
Half Marathon: 1:39:21 PB (previously 1:43:23)

Course Bests

AMA 5K/Run for Hungry Children: 20:12 (previously 20:23)
Abe's Amble 10K: 41:30 (previously 42:06)
Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon: 1:39:21 (previously 1:44:45)

Races I Executed to Perfection

Sizzling Mile: 2.09, 1:20.90 (1:22.99), 1:21.45 (2:44.44), 1:20.01 (4:04.45), 1:17.11 (5:21.56)
Abe's Amble: 6:40.56, 6:47.45 (13:28.01), 6:41.31 (20:09.32), 6:46.67 (26:55.99), 6:43.87 (33:39.66), 6:38.83 (40:18.69), 1:11.95, (41:30.64)
Heroes Run for Hope: 6:33.34, 6:52.87 (13:26.21), 6:39.37 (20:05.58), 6:43.12 (26:48.70), 6:12.92 (33:00.62)

Future Plans

I have no "A" races planned for the foreseeable future. Kim and I have a baby due in March and he has Down Syndrome and will need heart surgery this summer. I plan to continue working on my masters degree through this so I will only race when the mood strikes me and when I have the time. I am tentatively planning on running the 2010 version of the Illinois Half Marathon in Urbana-Champaign that April. When I complete graduate school in June of 2010 I will set my sights, if all is well, upon the 3rd annual Illinois Marathon in the spring of 2011.

Catching Up

I didn't do a race report for the Jingle Bell Run 5K last week. I've been busy with house repairs and getting said house ready for people to look at it. I've also had the regular business with school, grad. school, family, etc.

Last Saturday was cold as a well digger's ass in Ohio. It was only about 35 degrees with very chilly winds coming out of the NE at close to 20 mph. That was fine on the way back in on the out-and-back course but really sucked on the way out. Once we hit the tree line around the 1K mark it was fine.

I drove to the race so I had about 90 minutes to sign-up and warm-up. I'm glad I did because it was a huge SNAFU. You had to sign-up and pay at one table, get your bib number at another and then get your goodie bag and t-shirt in another. It was a ton of standing in line. To make matters worse when I got to race and went to grab my gloves and hat they weren't in the car. Luckily I had a raggedy old stocking cap in my car that was covered in dead leaf fragments from the yard work I'd done in it the previous weekend and an extra pair of socks in my dry clothes bag. I eventually found my hat and gloves on the floor of my garage upon returning home.

I got in about a two mile warm-up and stripped down to a long sleeve shirt, light vest, tights, glove/socks and lawn detritus covered hat. I lined up with my friend Emily (the girl I beat at the Run for Hungry Children 5K in April and then almost puked on her shoes). Emily was planning on running 20:00 or faster as I was. The plan was to egg each other on to get under that mark.

The gun went off and Emily shot away. I yelled at her, "What's the hurry?" She said "C'mon!" I stayed where I was because I didn't want to go that fast.

I tucked in behind a few fool-hardy high school kids until we hit the tree line and then I started picking them up and putting them down. I hit the mile, which I think was off, in 6:17 and hit the turnaround in 10:30 with my buddy Nyle. I'm not sure if the turnaround is really the halfway point or not but it has to be pretty close. 10:30 at the halfway doesn't equate to a sub-20:00. I surged pretty hard with Nyle and we passed even more people heading toward the 2 mile mark. Nyle and I go back and forth quite a bit. I'll beat him a few races after passing him late and he'll get me the next race or two. We have a pretty decent rivalry but I think I have the edge because I'm about 20 years younger and have a better kick. He is pretty fun to race though and we pushed each other pretty hard the last bit of this race.

We hit the second mile mark in 11:57 but I'm gonna go ahead and say that their's no way I ran a 5:39 mile and ran within one second of my post-married life PR. Nyle got the best of me heading out of the treeline but only after we passed another three or four people. We were running with two other teenagers at this point and Nyle attacked and built up a lead of no more than five seconds with about 800 to go. Out of nowhere I got a second wind and could see Emily only ten seconds ahead. With about 600 to go I started sprinting. I dropped the high school kids and started gaining on Nyle. Right around the three mile mark we turned into the final straight and I kicked past Nyle and came within a whisker of getting Emily at the finish. I didn't puke though.

I stopped my watch as I crossed the line in 19:59.59. Emily must have run 19:58.xx as her time was 19:59 and mine was 20:00 in the official results, these were the same guys who did the timing for the Parade Run (11:59.68 but 12:00 official). Nyle finished one place behind me in 20:05. I ran from the turnaround to the finish in 9:28.

I placed 19th overall, 17th overall male and finally completed my collection of age group medals with a win in the 30-34 age group to go with two second place finishes and a third in 25-29. The after race party was crazy busy and when I finally decided to brave the line for food there was NOTHING left! No coffee, no bananas, no muffins, nothing.

I went home, drank coffee and did homework.

3200 m. Time Trial

In the spirit of the post-season that is going on around me I decided to run a hard workout today. My high school alma mater brought home two trophies and four individual all-state medals from the 1A state cross country championships last weekend and the D-1 regional cross country meets were taking place this morning.

I ran a warm-up around the neighborhood and drove to the middle school track in the drizzle and wind to do another mile of accelerations before ditching the jacket and putting on my vest for a 3200 meter time trial. The temps were in the mid-30s with winds about 16 mph out of the NW with gusts in the 20s. Add a nice drizzle/sleet to the mix and it was a fun time.

I decided to see how 1:35s felt and had at it.

Here are my splits:

1:36.10
1:37.36; 3:13.46 (3:13.46)
1:36.35; 4:49.81
1:35.76; 6:25.57 (3:12.11)
1:35.24; 8:00.81
1:35.63; 9:36.44 (3:10.87)
1:34.75; 11:11.19
1:30.90; 12:42.09 (3:05.65) (6:16.52)

1:35s felt okay after easing into them the first few laps. I got a little uncomfortable the last 600 meters or so but nothing too bad. I think I could have clipped off 1:35s for a few more laps before vomiting.

I'm going to run the Jingle Bell 5K to close out my season next Saturday and more than likely will not race again until Adam is a few months old late next spring or early next summer.

Hopefully we will have a house in the Decatur area before he comes along, I hope they have a few decent races.

And the Winner is. . .

After weeks of suggesting names to my wife and weeks of her saying "no, I don't like that" I gave up on suggesting names and told her to pick one herself. She came up with. . .

It's a BOY!

I guess I'm going to be the father of sons.

We got our 20 week ultrasound today and while I was hoping for a daughter I am happy that I'm going to have another little boy around the house soon.

I was curious to see what a little girl would look like though.

All we know is that the middle name is going to be "Michael".

Any suggestions?

Heartbeats

Kim and I got out the stethoscope this morning and attempted to find the baby's heartbeat. When Kim was pregnant with Nathan we heard his heartbeat with our 'scope for the first time around 15 weeks in but we haven't had the same luck with this one. We are nearly 18 weeks along and I was able to find the heartbeat this morning. I guess the baby was feeling cooperative because I think it rolled for me because I could hear "swooshing" sounds and then the beat got louder.

We go in for the 20 week ultrasound on October 30th so hopefully the child's spirit of cooperation persists so we can discover if Nathan is going to have a baby brother or a baby sister in March.

Heroes Run for Hope

I ran the Heroes Run for Hope 5 mile in beautiful Chatham this morning. I LOVE having a race in the town where I live and I was heartbroken when the Race for Brazil/Race to Cure Lymphoma dissolved two years ago.

I love racing in Chatham because I know the streets, I know the hills and I like to do well on my "home" course. This morning dawned sunny and cool with temps in the mid-50s by race time. As I stood on the line I did not see any of the big horses from the SRRC and was wondering if the race was going to turn into a lonely slog in the lead. I didn't have anything to worry about though because when "go" was yelled a guy next to me on the line shot to the front. I let him go and focused on finding my rhythm as the race headed north on Rt. 4. As we passed Walgreens heading to the one mile mark another runner passed me. I didn't feel like chasing and hit the mile in 6:33.34 which was a bit faster than I wanted to go. I didn't feel over-extended and I tried to stride out on the downhill heading toward the railroad trestle. As I crested the hill heading toward the high school I felt like I had quite a bit of life in the legs and attempted to run the tangents as Plummer Rd. wound its way to Gordon Dr. I hit mile two in 13:26.21 with a mile split of 6:52.87.

After rounding the turn onto Gordon I knew that it was a long, straight shot to the three mile mark. Luckily for me the course basically mirrored the first three miles of my six my training loop that I have completed numerous tempo runs on. I settled into a rhythm and hit mile three in 20:05.58 with a mile split of 6:39.37. I ran up the next to last decent hill on the course and wound through the Breckenridge sub-division heading toward the four mile mark. As I rounded the corner with the four mile mark in sight I heard the scuff of shoes right behind me. I snuck a peek over my shoulder as I turned and saw a guy not quite ten seconds back and gaining. I noticed him at the two mile mark when he was about 30 seconds back. It seemed apparent that he was gunning for the bronze medal.

I surged hard at four which I hit in 26:48.70 with a 6:43.12 mile split. I cut a tangent heading to Park St. and swooshed around the corner into the last 3/4 of a mile and the last two hills on the course. I easily crested the first of the bunny hops and surged on the downhill side. As I approached the last hill a block later I lowered the arms and shortened the stride and gave it all I had. As I turned into South Park I dug deeper and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish. I could hear myself whimpering with effort and crossed the line in 33:00.62, having covered the last mile in 6:12.92. I managed to hold off my shadow by 11 seconds and just barely avoided vomiting on his shoes as he came over to congratulate me.

My shadow started running seriously this past spring after spending years on an elliptical machine. He is in his forties and knocked down five miles in 33:11 today. Personally, I am glad he didn't start running seriously a month or two earlier than he did or I would have had to settle for first in my age group instead of third overall.

The race was won by the guy who passed me at the mile mark. He caught the early leader with about a half mile to go and triumphed in 31:45 (I think) to 31:59. I remember when I could run that fast. . . on hilly, solo tempo run days even. Those days were nice. Those days were also about 13-14 years ago. Hopefully those days will come around again.

My legs felt pretty good after having felt dead every time I ran for the last month or so. I started doing the Core Secrets workout with Gunnar Peterson again the last two weeks and I think that is helping me out immensely. I think I'll have to keep that up.

I am getting ready to start two ten week long grad classes on Monday after finishing my first one a few weeks ago. I expect the blogging to go on hiatus for awhile, though I will post updates about our pregnancy toward the end of the month or beginning of next as we'll be discovering the sex of our child then. I'll also try to get a race report up if I decide to run the Jingle Bell Run 5K in the middle of November.

Take care and have a nice autumn!!!

Extra Credit

For two (2) extra credit points:

1. Identify the diagnostic imaging modality utilized to obtain this image.

2. Identify the anatomic structures demonstrated in this image.

I am not a good prognosticator.

I competed in the Polka Pace Race 5K in beautiful Havana, IL this morning. We had some nice weather with temps in the high 50's and sunny skies. The PPR is a flat and fast course and is where I ran my post-married-with-children PR (19:02) last season. If any race on my club's Points Series can be described as a "home" meet for me it is this one. My grandparents live three houses down from the starting line, a block before the two mile mark and about four blocks from the finish line. Add them to a town full of aunts, uncles and cousins (many of whom I have never met) and a good friend's parents who live around the corner from my grandparents and I have I rather large cheering section.

I had high hopes for this race even though my training has been derailed a few times this year by IT band syndrome, a hamstring pull, grad school and a new job. The plan was to hit the mile in 5:55 - 6:00, two in 11:55 - 12:10 and then try to hold on and get the last mile under 6:20 where I could use my finishing speed to dig under 19:00.

I got in a two mile warm-up and took my place on the line with a few high school football players. As the starting gun (siren) went off I broke my cardinal rule of racing, "don't get caught up in the initial sprint". I could tell that it was going to be a long day as I was breathing hard by the time we hit downtown Havana, not even 800 into the race. I hit 800 in 2:50, surged down the hill to the riverfront and found myself in 4th place as I passed the mile mark in 5:59. I was surprised to here 5:59 as I felt like I had run 5:50 or faster. I managed to hold form and could see that I was only 20 - 30 seconds behind the leaders as we wound our way to the 1.5 mark. I can't remember my exact split at 1.5 but it was sub-9:10.

I was passed by a guy from my club who passed me in the exact same spot as last year and I tucked in behind him and rapidly fell off the back about two blocks after the two mile mark (12:17). The hardest part about the final mile is that you basically have two long straights of about a half mile where you can see exactly how far you have to go to the turn or the finish line. As I approached the 2.5 mark I felt as if I was in a bad dream where I was running and running but not moving any closer to my destination.

The third mile was a long, shoulder-cramping, lung-searing stagger to the finish line where I ran fast enough to get passed by two more runners and finish in 19:22.79.

I finished in 7th overall (again) and won my age group only because the fastest 30-34 year old in the race placed third overall. On a happier note, I believe I clinched my club's Point Series championship for my age group to defend the title I earned last year. I also earned 8 points in the overall standings as I was the third club finisher across the line today. I have no idea where I am in the overall standings because they haven't been updated since late May but I finished 15th last year.

I think I am going to run the Shoreline Classic 15K in a few weeks but I'm not locking myself into it as I think the IT Band is flaring up again.

I think I'm going to have to give up on the sub-19:00 goal for at least this year.

Maybe I'll go play the lotto with the 18:34.64 from my dream.

Weird Dream

I dreamt last night that I ran the PPR in 18:34.64. I have no idea what my splits were in this Dreamland run but I was pretty happy to run that fast.

Unfortunately, I think they only way I'll run 18:34.64 at the PPR this weekend is if I have the same dream early Saturday morning or late that night.

Ambling at Abe's

I woke up this morning at 0500 because Nathan let out a yell. I went to his room and held him for a minute but he wanted back in his crib to be covered up. I brewed a cup of coffee, ate a banana and got dressed. I met my neighbor at 0600 and we drove to the Fairgrounds, arriving at 0620 or so. I did a two mile warm-up, hit the restroom and stretched a bit. The temps were nice, 59 or 60 at the start.

The plan for today was to go out easier than I did last year and to try to pick it up around the 5K mark. I ran splits of 6:35, 13:22, 20:13, 20:54, 27:06, 34:08, 40:50 and 42:06 at last years race. I wrote them on my hand last night before bed so I had a reminder of where I wanted to be at each mile mark.

After the National Anthem and the start I settled into a relaxed pace. I had no one I was gunning for and I just made sure I didn't get caught up in the excitement. I hit the mile in 6:40.56, which was a bit faster than I wanted but I felt good and wasn't in any distress. I eased up heading into the park and let myself flow down the hill as we left to head towards the cemetery. I eased up the first decent hill and hit mile two in 13:28.01 (6:47.45), about six seconds slower than last year.

I noticed that Joy was slowly coming back to me at this point but didn't really care, I just wanted to continue to drop 6:45 miles and see what happened until I could make a push during mile four. I used another downhill to my advantage as I entered the cemetery and came up on Joy right around the three mile mark. I crossed three in 20:09.32 (6:41.31). Just as soon as I caught her she spurted away and I let her go as she is known to run negative splits. I hit 5K in 20:49.17 and eased up the hill heading out of the cemetery. Once I crested the hill I surged and tried to maintain heading toward the four mile mark. Last year at this point I eased up too much. I crossed four in 26:55.99 (6:46.67) and was about 13 seconds ahead of schedule. I caught Joy at this point and passed her for good as I surged down the hill but slowed down once I hit the last major uphill going into Lincoln Park. I surged once again as I crested the hill and started to feel a bit of discomfort. Instead of slowing I surged again and told myself I only had ten more minutes to go.

I rounded the corner to the five mile mark and passed in 33:39.86 (6:43.87) to find myself nearly 30 seconds ahead of last year's time. The last 1.2 is a bit muddled but I think I passed a guy, got passed by another guy and passed two others as I entered the gate to the fairgrounds. I remember clicking my split at the mile to go mark and aside from that I only remember snippets of the last bit. I remember rounding the corner coming to the six mile mark and passing in 40:18.69 (6:38.83) and being too far out to catch the two guys ahead of me. I gave it a good shot and ran the last .2 in 1:11.95 to finish in 42nd place (six worse than last year) and in 41:30.64, a PR by 36 seconds.

I ran from the "mile to go" point in 6:25.64.

Today's time puts me within 1:45 of my PR from 1997 when I ran 39:46 after a night of debauchery.

I placed second in my age group and I feel pretty good about my chances of going under 19:00 at the PPR. I'm thinking 18:45-18:55.

Ten miles of reflection on the Parade Run

I got up this morning for a ten mile jaunt along the bike trail. It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid 60s and low humidity. I wasn't relishing the run but I made it the entire uncomfortable way in 1:21:39 with out and back times of 41:30 and 40:09.

I replayed my race from Thursday in my head and realized that even though I felt sluggish the whole way I ran fairly well. I stayed off the hard sprint the first 400 but felt it was too early to go with Joy when she blew by me about a minute into the race. I chalked it up to her being way ahead of me in training this year and waved goodbye as she passed.

The Parade Run course is basically an L-shaped out-and-back that starts in the fairgrounds and takes a hard right approximately 600 meters later. You run about a kilometer to the mile mark, turn around and retrace your steps to the finish line. John L. and I determined that the distance from the gate to the finish would take 30-35 seconds and that would probably indicate a pretty good place to launch a blistering kick. The Parade Run is one of only two races I have done since my first full season of racing in 2005 and I have never avoided being gunned down in that final stretch.

After watching Joy go by I concentrated on running relaxed. By chance I looked at my watch as I made the hard right and saw that it took me 2:18 to get there. My pal, and nemesis, Dan was ahead of me at this point but I caught him as we passed a set of speakers playing a drumbeat that sounded suspiciously like "36-24-36" by the Violent Femmes. Dan had the indignity of being passed by me as I sang the bridge to the song: "36-24-26, I want lots of pretty chicks. . ." I wasn't singing a few blocks later as I approached and hit the turnaround in about 5:56-5:57.

I snagged a paper cup of water that promptly spilled as the volunteer didn't let go. I took a big enough sip to wet my whistle and dumped a few drops on my head as I took advantage of the downhill to surge. The pack had strung out a bit at this point but I knew that if I could catch the two guys ahead of me I'd have a good shot of going under 12:00 no matter how much it hurt.

The discomfort struck a block later and a subversive voice in my head told me that anything faster than 12:20 would be acceptable. At that point I looked up and saw that Joy was in sight and told the subversive voice that he was full of shit and needed to sit back and buckle up because I wasn't done quite yet.

I focused on relaxing and reeling in the two ahead of me hoping that Joy had run the first mile at a suicidal pace and would come back to me. After the race I found that Joy and her pace crew hit the mile in 5:36. When I hit the turn to head straight into the fairgrounds I told myself I only had about two minutes to go and that if I was going to break 12:00 this stretch was where it was going to happen. I caught one of the two I'd been chasing about a half block from the gate and caught the other (a short, skinny 12 year old boy, ironically) about a hundred meters from the line. I hit the finish in 12:00.86 by my watch but forgot that I hit my watch at gun time instead of when I crossed the mat.

My official time was 11:59.68 but it was rounded up to 12:00 by the race results people, which irritates me. I placed 34th overall, a two place improvement from last year, and won the 30-34 age group by 1:20. Unfortunately I wasn't the fastest 30-34 year old in the race as Joy ran 11:41 high. I am heartened by the fact that her 5:36 first mile took a toll on her because that meant I ran a faster second mile than she did, though not much faster. I do wonder how much faster I could have run if I'd tried to maintain contact with her and her pacers though.

The prediction that John L. and I came up with to determine the amount of time it would take to get from the gate to the finish was spot on as I covered the distance in 32.88 seconds and avoided being out-kicked in that stretch for the first time in four attempts at this race.

Next Sunday is Abe's Amble 10K and I am hoping to go under 42:00. The tempo runs, longer intervals and distance base is not as impressive as it was last year but I was also training through Abe's in preparation for the PPR. Maybe I'll surprise myself on Sunday. Maybe I won't.

Parade Run

I felt sluggish from the gun in the 82 degree temps, 53% humidity and NNE 9 mph wind. I hit the mile in about 5:57 and followed up with a 6:03, by my watch. When they posted results from the chip timing my official time was 11:59.68 but on the website they rounded all the times up or down and my time is 12:00. Bastards.

I won the 30-34 age group by about 1:20. This is the only race where I have a complete set of age group awards. 2nd and 3rd in 25-29 and 1st in 30-34. Coolness.

Bud Lite Lime and 3200 meters

Last night I had a Bud Lite Lime with the two chicken tacos I had for dinner. I'd been very drowsy all day, ate a late lunch, needed to finish my research paper for the week and was ready for bed by 1800 hrs when dinner rolled around. I wasn't in any mood to run even though I had a hard practice scheduled so I had a beer while I ate. After dinner I wrote my short research paper on community college finance and was wired. I decided to run that practice I had scheduled.

I changed clothes, drank a little water and ran to the high school track where I did some strides and launched into a 3200 meter tempo run. I decided to do the tempo at 6:20 pace but I figured that 3200 meters is actually about 18 meters (or two seconds) short of two miles I would run the 3200 meters in 12:36 (6:18/1600 meters).

As I was finishing up my strides I had a small burp that reminded me of my solitary Bud Lite Lime. "Sodium" I told myself. "No need to skip the practice, you're all worked up and warmed up anyway."

I calmly walked to the start line and proceeded to click off these 400 splits:

1:36.26
1:34.11--3:10.37
1:34.27--4:44.64
1:33.67--6:18.31
1:34.36--7:52.67
1:34.95--9:27.62
1:35.66--11:03.66
1:32.09--12:35.37

I felt pretty decent but started getting a bit uncomfortable going into lap six. I held pace but on the homestretch of lap seven a bug flew into my eye and caused me to slow down a little until it crawled out. I recovered from the bug and increased turnover to ensure that I made it to 3200 in 12:36.

The Bud Lite Lime didn't come back to haunt me at all but I stuck with water the rest of the night as the 75 degree temps, lack of wind and 92% humidity kicked the crap out of me.

Today the body feels like I ran a comfortably hard effort in slightly dehydrated condition and I am a bit sore. I think I am going to take it easy heading into the Parade Run two mile Thursday and maybe to a short and fast effort early in the week before Abe's Amble. I still have hopes of going under 12:00 at the Parade Run, I hope the weather cooperates. I would also love to get under 42:00 at Abe's but will be quite happy with finishing and running a strong effort.

The lead-in to the Duel

Some of you know that I challenged my Hardy Breed pal Dan B. to a duel at the Sizzling Mile the other day.

This is where I issued the challenge.

This is Dan's write-up.

And this is Jason's.

There are links to pictures and they tell a nice story of the race.

Enjoy!

SIZZLING!

I've been pretty bad about posting the last few weeks but I've been busy with my grad. school class, working around the house and getting ready to start my new job as the Radiography Program Director at Richland Community College in Decatur.

I've been running pretty consistently, four days a week for about 24 miles. I get two easy days of five to six, a tempo or track session and an eight mile long run. After tonight I think I'm going to step up to ten mile long runs and faster speed days.

Tonight I ran the Sizzling Mile at the SHG track. I was in heat eight with the 5:00 to 5:30 people. As I was warming up I thought maybe sub-5:30 was a little ambitious of me to attempt what with my injuries of late. The hamstring is great and hasn't bothered me for about a month.

I challenged Dan from Hardy Breed to a duel and he accepted. When we lined up on the waterfall I took the position closest to the outside and out of traffic. When "go" was yelled I stayed outside, clicked my watch at the 1600 meter start line in 2.09 seconds, and waited until the pack strung out on the backstretch of the first lap. Joy and I were together and at 200 I was in dead-last with Joy a half-step ahead. We hit 400 in 1:20.90 (1:22.99) and I took the lead from Joy, picked off one or two runners and worked my way up behind the main pack a few seconds ahead of us. I hit halfway in 2:44.44 with a 400 split of 1:21.45.

I decided to start racing at the half and put down a hard surge the next 200 to catch, pass and gap the pack I was chasing. Dan was leading that pack and I passed him right at the 1000 mark. I hit 1200 4:04.45 with a 1:20.01 third lap and gave one last, long dig in the gun lap.

Things got a little muddled the last 400. I think I passed one or two more people but Carl B. caught and passed me on the last corner and a skinny little 15 year-old nipped me at the line. I guess that is karma's way of getting me back for sprinting down the 12 year-old a month ago.

I ran the last lap in 1:17.11 for a total time of 5:21.56, unofficial. My official time was 5:21.85 and I finished 12th in my heat of about 20. Dan finished a few places back in 5:27.60 and Joy finished in 5:28 high, I think. Our heat was won with a time of 4:56.

If you subtract my 2.09 seconds from waterfall to 1600 meter start I ran the high school mile in 5:19.76. That feels pretty nice.

In a nostalgic note for Nate, I ran into our old friend Clint L. He brought one of his runners down from Peoria, she won the women's division in 5:18. It was nice seeing you Clint!

I am going to shower and hit the sack.

Top-10 5K times since my comeback.

1. 19:02 - Polka Pace Race, 2007
2. 19:25 (twice) - Scholastic Challenge and Jingle Bell Run, 2007
4. 19:31 - I CARE for Residents, 2008 (winna!)
5. 19:35 - Polka Pace Race, 2006 (1:08 PB at the time, from 20:43)
6. 19:45 - Jingle Bell Run, 2006
7. 19:47 - Premier Bank, 2007
8. 19:54 - Scholastic Challenge, 2008 (out-sprinted a 12 year old, ALMOST vomited)
9. 19:57 - Premier Bank, 2008
10. 20:12 - Run For Hungry Children, 2008 (vomited)

It will be a good season if I can drop under 20:00 a few more times to get that 20:12 out of my top-10. I will also be happy if I can get to 100% and at least put a scare into that #1 time. This season has been so up-and-down. At least my times have been consistent.

Happy 4th!

I woke up around 0515 today, let the dog outside, started the coffee pot and got my son out of bed as he decided he was going to wake up early today instead of sleeping until 0630 like he usually does.

I read the newspaper and drank my first cup of coffee as he watched "The Higgly Town Heroes" and "The Wiggles." About halfway through the Wiggles I fed him a bowl of strawberry yogurt and a waffle. After waking up Kim I left the house around 0630 and drove to Jacksonville.

I registered, ran a 1.5 mile warm-up with Rick, Rob and the Bionic Woman and did a bit of light stretching until the gun went off. The Bionic Woman and I ran together, which caused me to ask her if she was going too slow or if I was going too fast, and hit the mile in 6:37.04 which seemed a bit slow to us. We both picked it up and ran a few people down. I held onto her as long as I could but when we hit the two mile mark she was about five seconds up on me. I hit two in 12:56.28 with a 6:19.24 mile split.

With about a half mile to go Joy had built a 22 second lead on me and I was trying to catch three high school boys ahead of me. I caught one but he passed me right back and together we ran down one of the kids but neither of us could catch the last one and we crossed the finish line in 19:53, 19:55 and 19:57. Joy finished in 19:36 winning the women's race.

I ran from the two mile mark to the finish in 7:00.99 and finished ten seconds slower than last year and three seconds slower than at the Scholastic Challenge. Last year I ran 19:47 and was 22 seconds slower than Scholastic. I think that with a bit of speed work and a few long runs I will be in pretty good shape. The fact that I haven't run in my flats in my last two races is heartening.

The Sizzling Mile is in a few weeks and I am hoping to put a scare into the 5:20 barrier.

Moldy Water and 4x400

Last night I decided to run a track workout to test the hamstring. I didn't have any pain after the Scholastic Challenge and I took it easy the week after when I was in Akron so I decided it was time to slowly increase the intensity of my training and try to salvage my season.

I ran an easy one mile warm up in my subdivision in 8:20 and then jumped into my car with my water bottle and drove to the middle school track. On the way to the track I discovered that my water bottle had mold in it. It was pretty gross.

I ran another mile of accelerations in 7:33 then took about two and half minutes to stretch out before starting my reps.

The goal was to run each rep in 1:26 with 400 meter recovery jogs between each repeat.

1:24.56 (2:15.01)
1:25.48 (2:16.86)
1:25.54 (2:16.72)
1:24.54 (2:17.35)

After my last recovery 400 I ran a cool down mile in 8:16 and went home for dinner.

This morning I headed out for a relaxed sic mile jaunt at 0430. I stretched out a bit and then ran splits of 8:43, 8:17, 8:24, 8:21, 8:02 and 7:54 for a total time of 49:41. I felt pretty good.

I'm going to take it easy tomorrow and maybe do a little yoga or some light calisthenics to loosen up the back and legs. Friday morning I am going to run the Premier Bank 5K in Jacksonville. I ran 19:47 there last year which was about 22 seconds slower than my time from the Scholastic Challenge. My goal is to beat that.

Next Monday I have a test meeting for my online Masters degree program. I'm going to test all my software to make sure I can attend class without any problems on July 14th. With any luck I will be completing my classes for my Masters degree in Education through the University of Illinois in June of 2010.

Fun in Akron

I was in Akron last week from Wednesday until (unfortunatly) Sunday. I was there for a Radiology Educators Conference and learned quite a bit. The gentleman who spoke for the three day conference has been a Radiography Program Director at a community college in SC for 37 years and was a treasure trove of information and advice. I had a good time and would love to visit his college when he holds a seminar there.

During my stay in Akron I went to the movies twice ("Ironman" and "Get Smart"), visited Best Buy everyday, ate at TGI Fridays (smoked salmon pasta), Outback (New York Strip, sweet potatoes, and green beans), Macaroni Grill (spaghetti and meatballs) and Steak -N- Shake (Frisco Melt). I drank a few beverages but didn't drink as many as I did when I was in Florida and I even got a few decent runs in at this really cool park one of the clerks at my hotel told me about.

The park was Sand Run Park and had quite a few trails that wound through pretty thick forest and up-and-down some very hilly terrain. I got a bit of five miles in on Wednesday, was rained out by some very severe weather on Thursday and put in a nice eight mile run in just under an hour and six minutes Friday.

Saturday evening I was supposed to fly from Akron to Chicago at 1845. Twenty minutes before my flight was to leave they canceled it. The airline put me up in a Quality Inn a few miles away and booked a flight out for me at 0600 Sunday morning.

This little trip was the longest I have ever been away from my son and when they canceled my flight I was about ready to cry. I missed him quite a bit and was hoping to be home when he woke up in the morning. It was worth the wait to walk into my house just before 1100 on Sunday morning and hear my wife say, "Daddy's home."

As I walked around the corner into our living room he was turning the corner around the couch. When he saw me his face little up and he yelled, "Da Da!!!" as he ran full tilt at me and lunged into my arms. As I picked him up he planted a kiss on my lips and then clung to me with his head on my shoulder for about two minutes before he let go.

He only let go so he could grab Kim and hug us both at the same time.

Scholastic Challenge

I got up just before 0500, let the dog outside and drank a cup of coffee before heading to the race around 0600 to get registered. It was a pleasant morning in the mid-sixties with a slight wind out of the South and moderate humidity. I jogged a mile and half with a buddy finishing about 15 minutes before the gun. I lined up with Dan B. from Hardy Breed and then we were off.

The plan was to stay close to Dan the whole race and kick him down the last 400 or so. I was about three seconds back at the mile as I went through at 6:20.55. I felt pretty good at that point but didn't think I was going to drop consecutive 6:10s to finish it out. I still thought I had a good shot at low-19:40s though. I ran mile two in 6:23.41 and went through in 12:43.96. As I crossed the bridge I lost quite a bit of ground on Dan and was passed by four or five people, at least, before launching a furious surge about 400 meters from the finish to pass most of the people who had gotten by me. I hit mile three in 19:21.60 after running a disappointing 6:37.64 split. I gave it about all I had the last 0.1 just to see how close I could get to Dan and finished in 19:54.35 running the last little bit in 32.75. Dan finished in 60th place in 19:48 and I was in 61st only because my killer instinct took over and I passed a short 12 year old boy with about five steps left in the race. I don't generally have a problem preying on children the last 100 meters of a race, they can't kick.

I'm pretty happy with my time though I feel I wimped out the third mile and could have run a little better from the two to two and a half point. I think I could have run ten seconds faster if I could just get over that weak mental moment I always have after the two mile mark. I placed second in my new age group and was only 15 seconds out of first.

Next up is the Premier Bank 5K on July 4th. We'll see if I can't break 19:47 there and bring home first in the 30-34 age group.

I also got my ass handed to me by the Bionic Woman. She placed third overall for females in 18:57 but was only four seconds out of first and three seconds out of runner-up. They were in a pretty tight pack. I wish I'd been up there to see it.

Clean bill of health

I went to my chiropractor today and the deep tissue massage didn't make me growl profanities at him so he pronounced me cured and told me not to come back for a month unless it started bugging me.

My clean bill of health is just in time for the Scholastic Challenge 5k at 0730 tomorrow morning. Last year at this race I went out strong with IronTim and the Bionic Woman in 6:05, hung in through two at a then PR 12:17 and crashed ten steps later. I staggered across the finish with a 6:33 final mile and a bad taste in my mouth as Tim and BW had run sub-19:10. This year BW is enjoying some post-Boston Marathon fitness and has already cranked a 5:40 mile in her only race since running the Marathon. She told me a week ago that she thinks she's in the best shape she's been in since graduating from SIUC. I thought, "Oh shit. Here comes another nine straight losses."

When I ran into IronTim at Passavant he told me that he has felt positively mortal since running the Country Music Marathon in April. I never count Tim out but this year I'm not in his age group. I'm still in the 25-29 age group for the Points Series but Tim and I are getting our asses handed to us by a guy named Bernie. Bernie is out-pointing us because he's run all five Points races this year to my two and Tim's one. Luckily for us they count your nine best races and there are still ten races left in the Series. I don't really care too much this year but it would be nice to defend my title.

Point Series aside, I am nervous about this race for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that I haven't run any speed work since May 31st, if you count my DNF at Passavant. If you Don't count Passavant (I'm not counting it) I haven't done any speed since the week of May 12 - 18 where I did 1.5 miles in 9:32 and a mile in 6:19 that Tuesday and ran the Race to Feed Hungry Children in 20:12 and vomited (I counted the vomiting as an ab workout) that Saturday.

The other reason I'm nervous is because I haven't run more that 20 miles a week in over a month. I know that you don't need to run ultra-long miles to run a 5k but six mile long runs are about all I've been able manage for the last six weeks or so. I'm glad tomorrow isn't a 10k or I'd be toast.

The plan tomorrow is to go out safe. Safe can probably be defined as 6:10 to 6:20. Hopefully that will feel pretty good and I can get through two in the neighborhood of 12:30 or faster. During my runs this week I have been visualizing the last mile of the race as we come over the bridge and I visualize myself passing people and finishing strong. I also have been visualizing 18:40 on my watch as I hit mile three and 19:15 as a finishing time. If I can run that fast I'll be ecstatic. If I feel like crap from the gun then I'll be happy to just break 20:00 and place in my new age group.

All that is left now is to hydrate and go to bed.

Watch out 30 - 34!

The 30 - 34 age group just got a little tougher as I moved up a division as of yesterday. The Scholastic Challenge is up this weekend and I'm hoping to start my thirties off with a nice showing and some hardware. Truth be told, I am ecstatic to be out of the 25 - 29 age group as it was getting ridiculously tough from all the young studs who don't have families kicking the snot out of me because they can devote five hours a day to exercise. I'm lucky if I get five hours a week.

Brick

I kicked my ass for Father's Day. After putting Nathan down for his nap a little after noon I did all the lower body and core exercises (18 exercises) in the 45 minute Core Secrets workout. After that I put on the bike shorts and filled a water bottle for a 50 minute ride on the bike trail during which I covered 14.23 miles. Not especially speedy but a decent workout. After I parked the bike I put on the running shorts and ran three miles in 24:50. Running minutes after dismounting a bike felt weird as hell. I felt like I was still pedaling. After I got back from my run I walked into the backyard, took off my shoes and socks and flopped into the swimming pool Kim and I spent the morning blowing up and filling for Nathan. I'm tired now.

I got 20 miles of running for the week and my hamstring feels better, probably about 90%. I'm going to take it easy again this week but I'm going to pound the lower body and core exercises all week and see how I feel on Saturday morning for the Scholastic Challenge. I am going in without any expectations. I just want to make a reasonable accounting of myself as this will be my first race in the 30-34 age group. If I can start my thirties off with an age group win I will be pretty happy. Hell, I'll even take a show.

Wednesday is the big day.

Insomnia

I can't sleep.

On a usual Saturday night I would have been asleep for close to three hours by now (it is 2420 hrs here in Illinois). Tonight I'm wide awake. I'm pretty sure it is the Mr. Pibb I had with dinner. I tend to not have any caffeine after I've finished my two - three cups of coffee I drink in the morning between 0530 and 0730 but tonight I decided to have a soda with dinner instead of a beer or just water.

So here I am typing in my blog while my wife sleeps peacefully across the hall and my son slumbers in the room next door.

I was going to go for an eight miler at 0430 but I'm thinking that I might go earlier if I keep tossing and turning.

I've been nursing a sore right hamstring for awhile now. The chiropractor I go to has been deep tissue massaging it and running therapy on it (where he sticks an electrode to it to make it fire) and he has forbidden me to run hills or speedwork. I can still run easy, bike and do yoga. I have been doing hamstring presses on the stability ball and they suck. I know I should have been doing them all along but even when I'm not sore they hurt. I guess that means that I had some underlying weakness in my hamstrings all along.

I do a yoga pose, the name of which I forget, where I am on all fours to start. The sequence from there goes to extending one arm in front of me and extending the opposite leg behind me. After holding that pose for three breaths I turn and grab my leg with the opposite hand and hold that pose for another three breaths. After that I extend the arm to one side and the leg to the other side and hold there. On that pose, with my right leg stuck out, I can feel marked weakness in comparison to my left. Something isn't right but thanks to my evil chiropractor's ministrations it feels "righter" than it did last weekend. Hopefully I can nip this in the ass so that I can keep up this good season I'm having.

I still have lofty goals of sub-5:20 at the Sizzling Mile, 11:45 at the Parade Run and 18:50 for 5K. I'd love to crank out a sub-19:00 at the Scholastic Challenge but I don't know if that is going to happen. It might have to wait until the PPR.

I've been thinking about my training schedule this past week and I think I've been trying to cram too much crap into a very small bag. A track workout, a tempo workout and a long run in four days of running is too much intensity. I think that when I get healthy and have the okay to run speedwork I will alternate track workouts and tempo workouts every week. Some of you are going "DUH!" but you all know how obsessive we can get about doing more and more when we're running well and want to do better.

I lost sight of my big picture as it pertains to my running. . . train smart to stay injury free. Consistency builds improvement and it is hard to be consistent when you're hurt.

I hope everyone is well and sleeping better than I am.

If it looks like a gun then it must be a . . .

Have you ever seen the Tim Allen movie "Big Trouble" where the TSA screener passes a nuclear bomb through because the bad guys convince her that it is a garbage disposal? The story here is at the other end of the spectrum. Use some damn sense people.

Thunder, flat tires, hamstrings, skip ropes and speed bags.

We have had some scary ass weather here in Illinois the last 24 hours or so. It started last night when I was awakened at 2358 by the sound of thunder rolling across Chatham. Since then we've had a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch with another round expected later tonight. In fact, I just heard thunder again.

After my DNF on Saturday I chilled out that afternoon, went to Dairy Queen that night, mowed the yard Sunday morning and did the 45 minute Core Secrets workout (with Gunnar Peterson!) that afternoon. Later that afternoon I took my bike, with the brand new tire, out for a ride. I was only going to go for thirty minutes but I got about a mile and a half away from my house and my brand new tire was flat! There was no puncture to the tire so I'm guessing that the tube was kinked or that I'm so fat I blew the tube. I was a little pissed off walking the mile and a half back to my house pushing the bike.

Monday morning I rolled out of bed at 0430 and went to the track to do a 200 - 400 - 800 - 400 - 200 ladder. I warmed up with my customary easy mile (8:32) and a mile of strides (7:54).

I had a few cobwebs the on the upside of the ladder and hit my 200 in 42.41 and jogged a 200 (1:16) before starting my 400 which I completed in 1:25.97. That was about two seconds slower than I wanted but I didn't really care. I jogged a 400 (2:30) and ran my 800 in 2:48.37. My 400 split was right at 1:25 so I negative split the last 400 in the neighborhood of 1:23, that's always cool. I jogged an 800 in 4:48 and booked my final 400 in 1:22.27 completed another recovery 400 in 2:29 and finished off the ladder with a 40.17 for my 200. I finished the lap with a 1:15 and ran a mile and a half cool-down in 12:01.

After work Monday evening I went to the chiropractor for some deep tissue massage on my right hamstring. I hate my chiropractor, big asshole. I swear that his thumbs sprout razor blades when he does deep tissue massage. It helps but I still want to kick him in the head afterwards.

Misplaced aggression for my chiropractor and my bike might be the reason I cleared out the corner of the garage that houses my heavy bag and speed bag stand this evening. I did 5 x 1 minute skip rope with one minute rest intervals during which I hit the speed bag.

I love the speed bag. I thought I was going to be all thumbs since I haven't hit the thing for about two years but it felt like I'd hardly taken a break from my days of training to be a really crappy boxer. You start your speed bag session hitting the bag eight times with your right hand and then switching to hit it eight times with your left hand, then you switch back to your right for four hits, then left for another four, right for two, left for two, right for two, left for two and then you alternate hands for 16 hits and work your way back up.

A fast guy can do that sequence (up and down) twice in one minute. I could only do it one and a half times when I was training (way back in 2003) but surprised myself by completing at least one sequence each of the five times I did it tonight.

I go back to the chiropractor tomorrow for more deep tissue massage and as long as it isn't storming at 0430 I'll probably get up and run an easy four or five miles before going to work.

"If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion." Lin-Chi

F#(k!

Humidity + blisters = DNF.

I've been quiet and gone.

My wife and I took a trip to West Palm Beach, Florida for our fifth anniversary this past weekend. We stayed at the Resort on Singer Island for three nights and ate lots of rich food, drank lots of beer, wine and spirits and frolicked on the beach. We had a good time but missed Nathan quite a bit by Sunday afternoon.

I managed to get a few short runs in while we were there. I ran from our hotel to the bridge that went over to the mainland and back which was distance of about three miles. The bridge was steep. I'll put some pictures up later.

Yesterday after work I ran six miles in 49:15. My original intent was to run eight but it was too damn hot and I just wasn't feeling it. This morning I got up at 0430 and ran another six miles in 48:22. Yesterday I couldn't seem to run any faster than 8:10 pace but this morning, due to cooler temps and better hydration, I was able to run splits of 8:35 (I wasn't awake yet), 8:16, 8:20, 7:59, 7:48 and 7:23. I closed out a bit fast to knock the rust off for my 10K on Saturday.

I'm running the Passavant/Powerade 10K in Jacksonville. I like the race as it is a reasonably fast course with enough roll to it to make you change tempo but not enough to knock you off stride as long as you didn't go out too fast. The only problem with the course is that it is out in the open with no cover and it gets hot when the sun is out. They're predicting highs of 83 with sunny conditions on Saturday so I'm guessing that by 0830 it will be in the high-60s or low-70s.

Quite a few people from the SRRC are running a biathlon Saturday instead of the 10K so it will be a good opportunity for me to earn some points in the Series. I don't think that the lack of SRRC members is going to slow the race down too much and I'm not expecting my run of top-five finishes in races to continue. I would like to run 41:00 or better but with the extra weight I picked up in Florida beating my 42:15 from last year would make me happy.

Back in February I ran a five mile tempo run at 6:52 pace. I'm sure that 42:15 will be no problem.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict 41:10.

I hope I'm right, I don't want to make an ass of myself.

Run for Hungry Children 5K

I just have to say that I really hate the Washington Park 5K course. It is a highly technical, hilly and incredibly frustrating course to try to have a good race on. You start the race on a very slight uphill which is followed by a HUGE downhill, a sharp turn and a nice assent to the Carillon. You get a nice downhill after that and then it is flat until the mile mark but you have to be careful to run your tangents to that point. After the mile you make a sharp right turn and contend with a few twists and turns and a few rollers to the two mile mark where you run down the huge hill AGAIN and up Carillon Hill, down the other side and then you make a sharp right up a 300-400 meter hill past the clubhouse followed by another right turn to head more-or-less straight to the finish line that is at the top of a nice roller.

I hit the mile mark in 5:58 and then ran the last 2.1 in 14:14 for a total time of 20:12.40. I had enough left the last straight to kick my way back into 5th place and puked promptly after crossing the finish line and again about thirty seconds later. Lucky for me I only ate a banana, yogurt and a cup and a half of coffee a few hours before the race. Not much came up.

I felt pretty dead the whole race and I've been contending with a bit of a spring cold and some hay fever the last week. Not to make excuses at all. The truth of the matter is that I'm not a strong hill runner. I tend to do better on courses I can stride out on.

The positives from today are that I ran an 11 second best on the course and I ran 23 seconds faster than I did a month ago on the very same course.

I feel good about my chances of running under 41:00 at Passavant as it is a course that agrees with me. There are a few hills but they're spaced well apart and there are quite a few long straights for me to stride out on.

I wonder how Nate did at his 10K?

Re-attempt and my brother

I ran an easy six Monday morning before work in about 8:05 pace.

Tonight I decided to go to the track and attempt that damn 2 x 1.5 mile repeat practice that I flubbed on Saturday. As I was doing my warm-up I changed it to a 1.5 rep and a mile rep. I covered my mile warm-up in 8:00 and drove the the middle school track where I ran another mile of strides in 7:27. I had a pretty day with temps right about 68 but with a nice breeze coming out of the Northwest at 10 mph and only 46% humidity.

I stretched out for a few minutes and started my 1.5 mile (2400 meters actually)

1:35.93
1:39.53; 3:15.46
1:32.93; 4:48.39
1:32.91; 6:21.30
1:35.44; 7:56.74
1:35.33; 9:32.07

Not bad but the 1:32s were too fast because 1:35s would have sufficed.

I took 2:00 to breathe and started my 1600 meter workbout.

1:30.86 (DAMMIT!!!)
1:36.81; 3:07.67
1:36.82; 4:44.49
1:35.40; 6:19.89

I have no idea why I opened with a 90 second split but I didn't want to and I need to practice reining myself in or I'll suffer for it in a race.

I'm pretty happy with the practice, happier than with Saturday's anyway. I think the 6:26 pace will feel easy if I can just get myself to run it instead of 6:20.

On a happy note, my brother returned home for his mid-tour leave from Iraq. He got home Saturday night and surprised our mom for Mother's Day. Unfortunately I missed it because Nathan was under the weather. I'm hoping to see him next week as he is taking his girlfriend to Chicago for a Cub's game this weekend.

My Mom just e-mailed me to tell my that one of my brother's friends was killed by an IED today and another two were wounded. This happened last time my brother was in Iraq and went on leave. If you're the praying type include the families in your prayers tonight.

I'm going to go call my brother.

2 X 1.5 miles = Disaster, Part II

As I posted earlier, I ran like crap today. I have theories as to why I did so allow me to set the stage.

First of all, I've not been getting a lot of sleep. Nathan seems to think that 0330 is this season's 0600. I could have set my watch by the kid this week because he let out a yell at 0330 every morning. Only once did he not go back to sleep but when you get a 0330 wake-up call every morning you start waking up at that time whether there is a reason to or not.

Second possible reason I ran like ass today, I've been running very stupid on my recovery days. Wednesday morning I got out of bed at 0430 (since I had been awake since 0330) and ran my easy six miles. I felt pretty good but because it was dark still I had no frame of reference to tell how fast I was really going. I hit my first mile in a blazing fast 8:27 and I picked it up a bit the second mile. Again, the darkness gave me no frame of reference as to my actual speed and I felt good but I ran my next two miles in 7:40 and 7:57. Easy pace is 8:01. 7:40 is not Easy pace. I regrouped and ran 8:03, 8:00 and 8:10 to close it out in 48:09. I was happy with that but I told myself that I was not allowed anymore 7:40 miles on Easy runs the rest of the year.

Friday afternoon I got home from work and set out for another easy six miles. I brought the iPod along with my Modest Mouse and Against Me! and blazed my way to 7:45 and 7:48 mile splits to open up my easy day. Through a titanic act of self control I slowed my next two miles to 8:19 each but had another mental lapse that caused me to torch mile five in 7:47. I pulled up for an 8:02 to close out the run with a total time of 48:03 but I find that I'm a much more rested runner when I actually run an even pace that is slightly slower than what my Easy pace calls for.

This morning I awoke at 0530 for no particular reason. It was a good thing that I did because Nathan woke up at 0535. I skipped the coffee and breakfast this morning (which might be the third reason I ran like shit today) and instead drank some water and watched "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and "Handy Manny" with my boy. Kim got out of bed around 0800 and I started my run not too long after that.

I warmed up with a mile in 8:09 and a mile of strides in 7:44. I took about 4:30 after that to stretch and run into the house to hit my albuterol inhaler as my hay fever was making it hard to breathe. After stretching and getting my fix I started the first of my reps. I was right on pace at the half mile mark but must have got a bit excited that next half as I hit the mile mark in 6:20.10. I felt heavy all through my warm-up and after hitting the mile six seconds ahead of schedule I made myself slow down the last half to cruise into the finish in 3:15.54 for a total time of 9:35.64 for rep number one.

I took two minutes to walk around and recover before starting rep number two and I just couldn't seem to suck in a deep breath and fill my lungs. When my two minutes were up I bolted to the half mile mark in 3:10.22. Upon seeing that all the wind left my sails and not even two cute girls on bikes heading the opposite direction could make me puff up my chest and act like I was a stud effortlessly running a workout.

As the second rep drug along I could feel my turnover slow, my arms creep up and my breathing grow more labored. I made it my goal to try to sneak under 10:00 but in the end I didn't even have enough energy to do that as I ran the last mile in 6:52.69 for a total time of 10:02.91.

The finish line for rep number two was at the entrance to the west parking lot of Glenwood High School and I laid on the sidewalk for 3:31 before making myself run a three mile cool-down in 25:40 with splits of 8:47, 8:42 and 8:11.

I'm thinking that the next time I do this workout that I might do it on the track so I can closely monitor my lap times to avoid blowing myself out early. I don't seem to have the sense of pace that I had last year and it is worrying me quite a bit, especially with a 10K coming up in about three weeks. Running too fast the first two miles of a 10K tends to result in a world of pain the last 4.2.

2 X 1.5 miles = Disaster

I was going to run 2 x 1.5 at 6:26 pace today. In a brief summary I ran 9:35 for the first rep and 10:02 for the second. It sucked. I'm not sure what happened.

More later.

Yeesh

My blog took forever to load so I am going to make this entry brief.

When I got home tonight it was 77 with an 11 mph SW wind that was gusting to 20 an 24% humidity. I was a bit nervous about the temp so I put some sunscreen on, filled a bottle with some ice and water, ran a warm-up mile in 8:08 and drove to the junior high track to run a 200-400-800-400-200-200 ladder workout. I ran the same distance of recovery for the rep that preceded it, 200 rep-200 recovery, etc.

After doing a mile of strides I got started with the meat of the workout. My goal times for the workbouts were: 200-41, 400-1:23, 800-2:46.

What I ran:

200 - 38.27 (1:35)
400 - 1:21.33 (2:46)
800 - 2:43.87 (5:15)
400 - 1:23.26 (2:52)
200 - 40.40 (1:28)
200 - 40.29 (1:07)

I finished up with a 1.25 cool down in 10:00 and drove home for dinner with a total of six miles for the evening.

I'm pretty happy with the workout but I ran WAAAAYYY too fast. My second 400 is the only workbout I was on target. I was antsy for some reason, I think the thought of running an 800 that fast is intimidating.

What a week

It turns out that the puking my son engaged in last Saturday was the opening shots of a long bout of illness that lasted until late Wednesday. Kim, Nathan and I drove to Peoria Saturday afternoon for the wedding reception of one of my best friends from high school. Nathan spent the night at Grandma Claudia's and when we picked him up on Sunday morning he was looking pretty wimpy. Apparently he puked twice that night but she didn't call us because he seemed fine after that. What followed after that was a sick, mopey kid who had such bad diarrhea that every time he had an episode he would scream. Ironically, or typically, when I took him to the doctor on Wednesday morning he quit having diarrhea and started eating again.

Despite the sick little boy at my house Kim and I were still able to give each other chances to get out of the house for a bit and I managed to fit in a few nice workouts over the last week. Monday evening I ran and easy 6 miles in 48:47 with mile splits of 8:11, 7:58, 8:14, 8:09, 8:13 and 8:01.

Wednesday night was a track workout. I had a nice night with 68 degree temps, 49% humidity and a SE wind blowing at 13 mph. I ran three sets of 2x200 plus 400 with 200 meter recovery jogs between reps and 400 meter recovery jogs between sets.

I started off with a mile warm-up in 8:05 and then ran a mile of strides in 7:28. The goal for the workout was to run my 200s in 41 seconds and my 400s in 1:24.

Set #1:

40.76
(1:10)
41.26
(1:15)
1:25.82
(2:26)

Set #2:

41.40
(1:17)
40.90
(1:28)
1:23.10
(2:36)

Set #3

41.75
(1:25)
40.77
(1:31)
1:23.81
(2:43)

I got a real bad right side stitch the last set that hurt like you wouldn't believe. I'm glad I didn't have to do another set because it would have sucked.

I cooled down with a mile in 8:26 and went home with a total of six miles for the night.

Thursday night I ran another easy six miles after dinner. I left too soon because I felt really heavy the whole run so I've decided that I should probably wait two hours after eating meatloaf and mashed potatoes before running for future reference.

Thursday night was a pleasant 67 degrees that felt much cooler due to the winds blowing out of the South at 19 mph that would gust up to 25. I ran most of the first four miles into that wind as you can tell by my mile splits: 8:39, 8:19, 8:30, 8:10, 8:17 and 7:55 for a time of 49:49.

Early Saturday afternoon I set off for an easy ten miler after putting Nathan down for a nap. I had my iPod Shuffle loaded up with Modest Mouse's "The Lonesome Crowded West" and "Searching For a Former Clarity" by Against Me! The majority of the 1:20:17 it took me to cover my ten miles was eaten up my the incredibly enjoyable "Lonesome Crowded West". Most Modest Mouse fanboys say that "The Moon and Antartica" is their best and while I agree that "Moon" is pretty good I think I prefer "The Lonsesome Crowded West". Highlights for me were the songs "Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice On Ice, Alright", "Polar Opposites", "Bankrupt On Selling", "Lounge (Closing Time)", "Jesus Christ was an Only Child", and "Cowboy Dan".

While jamming out to Modest Mouse I hit splits of 8:08.84, 8:18.11, 8:19.05, 15:55.42, 16:05.92, 7:47.83, 8:05.03 and 7:37.60 all while running in wind that was out of the WNW at 25 mph and gusting to 32. I'm glad that I didn't run the Lake Run 12K yesterday because it would have sucked.

This week is looking like a 200-400-800-400-200-200 ladder on the track tomorrow, an easy six on Wednesday, a three mile tempo at 6:32 - 6:38 pace on Friday and another easy 6-8 miles on Saturday.

This week I covered 28 miles, on four days of running, to bring my total for the year up to 415.75. I only did lifted once and only did yoga once so I need to hit that a little more today and next week.

I Care 5K

I was up and down last night with Nathan and Kim as he hand a tummy ache and started puking at about zero-dark-30 and puked twice more in the next hour after that. Kim thinks he drank too much soapy water in the bathtub last night. I think I'll start calling it the barftub now.

I woke up around 0630, ate some Cheerios and drank my two cups of coffee. I checked the Weather Channel around 0800 and saw that it was 45 with 15 mph winds out of the west and a wind chill of 33. I threw on tights, a long sleeve shirt and my jacket for a quick one mile warm-up mile in 7:50. After that I hopped in the car and drove to Sherman.

I got to Sherman, grabbed my packet, ran another mile to warm-up with a hard two minute surge at the half mile mark and changed into my flats. After that I stood around trying to stay loose as the race was running a bit behind schedule.

At 0945 we went to the line, got our instructions and got going. I'd been looking at the faces on the line and based on the fact that no one was lining up directly on the line I began to despair that I was going to have a lonely, blustery race ahead of me. As the gun went off I came off the line in the lead with two other people off either shoulder. I took it easy for the first sixty seconds and threw a hard surge off the first turn into a slight downhill. After that it was a race against the clock.

The course wound around a sub-division in Sherman that had a few rolling hills but nothing incredibly intimidating. It was enough to make you change your turnover but not enough to sap you too much and there were enough downhills to surge on that I felt pretty good the whole way.

I hit the mile mark in 6:40.94 but it felt more like a 6:10-6:20. I was pretty disgusted and quit looking at my watch after that. I had two high school kids on bikes acting as my pacers so I made a game of trying to catch them. I talked to them after the race and they said they were trying to keep ahead of me so that I didn't catch them. I would gain ground and get within three or four seconds of them and they would look back and crank the pedals for a few seconds to extend their lead.

Apparently my game made me run super fast the second mile because I hit the two mile mark in 12:20.88 having covered the distance in 5:39.94. I think the mile mark was long.

After the two I pretty much had the wind to my back and two wily high school boys on bikes ahead of me so I tried to keep running strong and maintain my form. I started to hurt a little but before I knew it I could see that I was within a half mile of the finish line and I kicked it in, passing three in 18:54.35 with a 6:33.47 mile split and finished off the last 0.1 in 37.74 with a watch time of 19:32.09.

The second place finisher was right around 21:00 - 21:10.

I drank some water, ate a banana and watched my Hardy Breed pal Jason finish third in the 10K and then I ran backwards(on the course, I didn't actually run in reverse) to catch IronMartha and run the last bit of the race with her. She was the third overall woman in the 10K with a sub-49:00 two weeks after completing her first Full Ironman.

Frankly, I'm astounded that I ran as fast as I did in what amounted to a solo time trial. I thought I would run that fast only if there was more company. Apparently I'm in better shape than I thought I was or the course was only three miles long.

I guess I'll have to come back and defend my title next year.

Weekly Report

I've had a busy week of work and running and tonight is the first night I've had to sit down and catch up on my blogging.

I covered 27.5 miles last week to bring my total for the year up to 366.75. Looking at my log I am almost 40 miles behind from this time last year. I also hadn't run a half marathon in 1:39:21 either. It looks like I was still training with my heart rate monitor too and it looks like it was starting to piss me off quite a bit.

Monday afternoon I got home from work, changed into my trainers and headed out into the 75 degree temps for a set of 2 x 1 mile at tempo pace (6:32). This was supposed to be a "comfortably hard" effort. Usually the problem with the practice is figuring out what the pace feels like and staying with it as it usually feels pretty pretty relaxed.

I ran a mile warm-up in 8:13.50 and then did a mile of eight 40 step pick-ups in 7:40.71. I stopped for 4:20 to stretch, sip some water and change into my flats. I started my first mile repeat on my mile course that winds through my neighborhood and noticed that I hit my quarter split in 1:34. I slowed down, at least I thought I did, and hit the half in 3:12. I apparently mistook what sewer grate is actually the 3/4 mark, AGAIN, and kicked it in with a bit too much mustard and a time of 6:19.18.

6:19.18 is about 13 seconds faster than I really wanted to run and I decided against a repeat performance on the next rep as I didn't want to blow myself out for my 5K this weekend. I didn't feel like I was straining too much but running faster than you really need to too often tends to defeat the purpose of training to race. I'd rather race well than blow my practice times away.

I gave myself 1:09 to recover and sip some water and then basically repeated my first mile up until the 800 when I reined myself in and finished in 6:25.18. That one actually felt alright.

I changed my shoes and sipped some water and them ran a mile cool down in 8:19.

Tuesday, after returning from work, I ran five miles in the 78 degree heat in a relaxed 40:29. I had mile splits of 8:11, 8:12, 8:04, 8:09 and 7:53.

Wednesday, I did some yoga and hamstring presses.

Thursday, I worked late and then vegged out with my son.

Tonight I got another fiver completed, before the storm, in 40:42 with splits of 8:23, 8:23, 8:02, 8:10 and 7:44. The wind picked up pretty hard the last mile and blew my back to my house. Within 10-15 minutes of getting back it was storming.

Tomorrow I am going to run the I Care For Residents 5K in Sherman. I don't know how big the race is going to be or how fast the course is but I would like to run 19:30 - 19:59 depending on who I've got to push/pull me. I'm not expecting to win the race but stranger things have happened. . . most notably my victory at the Springfield Housing Authority Turkey Trot 5K in 2006. I was hoping that more people would show up for that one but I think there were about 12 and I led wire-to-wire and won by over a minute. I don't think anyone was more surprised than I was.

I'll try to get a race report up before I leave for Peoria Saturday afternoon but it will probably be brief.

My pal IronTim is running the Country Music Marathon tomorrow with a goal time of 3:20. He ran 1:34 at the Lincoln Memorial and if you double his time and add ten minutes that gives you 3:18 and change for a marathon prediction. I think he can do it.

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow!

What I did this week.

My wife left for a conference in Florida at 0300 on Tuesday morning. I stayed in Chatham and became Mr. Mom until 1230 Friday morning when she got home. Nathan and I had a good time doing guy stuff: shoe shopping (okay, that isn't manly but I needed new shoes for work), getting DVDs at Best Buy (Juno for me and Toy Story and Thomas the Tank Engine for him), burgers at McDonalds, watching TV in our undies, and going for a hellishly tough four mile run in 20 mph winds while pushing 50 pounds of child and jogging stroller. We had a good time but we were both happy to see Mommy (Kim) on Friday morning.

I managed to get a six mile run on Monday in 48:51 and the four miles with the jogging stroller were covered in 33:19. I even managed to drop a sub-8 minute mile mostly because the canopy on the stroller acted as a sail and drug my ass the last 3/4 of a mile through our sub-division. Friday I ran another four miles in 32:30 in the pouring rain and went to Ruby Tuesdays with Kim and Nathan for another cheeseburger and salad. I ate three or four cheeseburgers this week, it usually takes me a month to do that.

Yesterday I ran 5 x 400 with 400 meter recovery jogs at the track. My intention was to run them in the 1:24-1:25 range but I have no sense of pace for the fast stuff anymore. After running two miles in 16:32 to warm up I ran the following:

1. 1:24.02 (2:18)
2. 1:23.84 (2:23)
3. 1:23.39 (3:19) changed into my flats.
4. 1:22.56 (2:16)
5. 1:16.63 (2:21)

I ran the last one as fast as I did because I just wanted to see how fast I could go. I'm impressed with the whole practice but I would be happier if I ran all of them in 1:24 like I did back in January.

This morning, after Kim woke up, I ran an easy eight miles in 1:03:29. I ran splits of 8:06, 7:52, 8:06, 8:06, 8:05, 7:58, 7:39 and 7:38. I didn't want to run that fast and I think that miles seven and eight are short but I'm happy with how easy it felt.

I think the only reason I ran as well as I did at my half marathon a few weeks ago is because I ran most of my long runs at low-eight minute pace or slightly under because even as I was crashing the last two miles of the race I still managed to run 7:58 and 7:44 splits which is what I'd been used to running.

Nate, I have a muscle question that I need an answer to. What muscle has an origin or insertion on the ischial tuberosity? When I stood up from changing into my flats that muscle gave me a twinge in my first few strides. I remember getting that feeling in high school a few times but never worrying about it. It feels like it is closer to the perineum than the femur if that helps.

Trials

I've been watching the Women's Marathon Trials for the last hour or so. Lewy-Boulet is way ahead and Deena just dropped Blake Russell and Mary Akor.

Deena looks good.

Blake just gapped Akor by about two seconds.

Interesting race, lots can still happen.

Blake has about a 7 second lead on Akor. Barring a huge meltdown in the last 9 miles it looks like Lewy-Boulet, Kastor and Russell representing the U.S. in Beijing.

UPDATE:

Davila from the Hanson's/Brooks team is making a run at Blake Russell and is only about 10 seconds back. Russell looks like she's laboring a bit.

At mile 20 Lewy Boulet only has a 1:17 lead over Deena.

Davila is right on Russell and is looking good. Russell looks like she's falling apart.

Lewy Boulet just ran mile 21 in 5:57, her slowest of the day, and has had her lead over Deena cut to 1:03.

Lead now down to 40 seconds. Blake looks like she's gained a little more ground on Davila.

Deena only 32 seconds back with less than four miles to go. Lewy Boulet looks BAD.

Deena 22 seconds back. Russell has a 23 second cushion over fourth place. Lewy Boulet could crash and miss out.

Deena only nine seconds out at mile 23.

Deena takes the lead at 2:14:50.

A former Illinois runner, Tera Moody, is in 4th place, 53 seconds behind Blake Russell. Mooday ran a 2:46 to qualify for the Trials and is on pace to take about 10 minutes off that time.

Deena 24 seconds ahead at the 25 mile mark.

Deena wins in 2:29:34!

Lewy Boulet second in 2:30:18.

Blake Russell third in 2:32:41.

Zoila Gomes is fourth in 2:33:53.

Tera Moody is fifth just a few steps back in 2:33:54.

Notice of Silence and one more "wow" moment.

I will not be posting over the next few days as my wife is going to a conference in Florida tomorrow and taking the laptop with her. She'll be back late Thursday night so I probably won't post again until sometime this weekend.

Don't miss me too much.

The other "wow" moment I am speaking of is that of Chris Derrick, the Illinois 3A state champion from Naperville Nequa Valley High School who ran 13:52 at Detweiller, just ran 5000 meters at an in-season high school track meet (Arcadia Invite) in 13:55. His two mile split (9:03) would have placed him 6th in the open two mile race, and then he closed with a 4:22 mile and ran the last 200 in 30 flat.

Stanford is going to be pretty good next year.

Wow.

Ryan Hall just ran 2:06:17 for fifth place overall at the London Marathon this morning. That means that he has run marathon times of 2:08:24, 2:09:02 and 2:06:17 to go with his 59:43 AR in the half marathon, all within the last 18 months. I am in awe of this guy.

Thank you Dan B.

These were taken by my friend Dan at today's race. Check out his website. Congrats on your 3:32:47 at St. Louis! Jason, congrats on your 3:33:11!

The guy in the gray is Ben and the other guy in the red Hammer jacket is John. They're fast and, unfortunately, in my age group. They're still nice guys despite the fact that they kicked my ass today.

AMA 5K

Seven days after running my brains out in the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon I ran a very sedate 5K race in Washington Park. The temps about an hour before race time were in the high 30s/low 40s with rain and 20 mph winds in the area. I ran a mile warm-up before leaving my house in about 8:03 and ran another mile when I got to the race with Patty and Molly. I felt loose as I stepped to the line but when the gun went off I just wasn't feeling it. I ran the first mile with my friend Matt who was running his first race since July 4th of 2007 due to some Achilles tendonitis. We went through the mile mark in 6:39.52 after which I remarked, "6:39? I thought we were running faster." I threw down a hard surge after that and passed six or seven guys before the two mile mark. I hit two in 13:17.70 running a 6:38.18 mile split. I was feeling pretty good as I headed down the big hill toward the Carillon but was in a huge "no man's land" between packs. I tried to make up as much ground on the two guys ahead of me as I could but wasn't able to get within 20 seconds of them before the finish. I crossed the line in 20:35.08 running the last 1.1 in 7:17.38. According to the pace calculator I use I ran the last 1.1 in 6:37 pace which means that I ran a very even paced race.

I never felt terribly uncomfortable. In fact, I felt very relaxed and in control the whole race. I ran 20:23 last year two weeks after crashing hard in the half marathon and coming down with bronchitis and after having spent the night in the ER with my son and his ear infection. I placed 13th overall today but only 5th in my age group.

I need to go now because my son just covered himself in the adhesive from one of those sticky mouse traps.

Pain and anoxia

I ran the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon this morning in beautiful Springfield, IL. Gun time was at 0730 after a speech by Abraham Lincoln, the National Anthem and a volley of musketry. I was lined up with my good pal IronTim and a newer pal, Ben. After the muskets went off I didn't see either of them until I finished.

My preparations for this very challenging course have been lacking the last five weeks due to IT band pain and an upper respiratory infection of some sort. I think I put in about 12 miles in the two weeks prior to today and I wasn't liking my chances of running 1:35 like I had hoped.

My goal for the first mile was to start slow in the neighborhood of 8:00. I let tons of people pass me the first few blocks and whenever I would feel myself speed up I would rein myself in and slow down. Mile one came in a very relaxed 7:37.28 (gun time, not chip). Usually when I say mile one felt relaxed it comes back and bites me in the ass so I made myself slow a bit more the second mile and started talking to a girl who was running beside me for the next mile, which we passed in 7:40.10 (15:17.38). I was starting to get into a groove but kept making myself slow down as it was still a bit too early for me to start knocking down faster and faster splits as the hills wouldn't start until the sixth mile. Mile three came and went in 7:44.37 (23:01.75). It should be noted that I was walking through the water stops so I could get the fluid in my gut instead of on my shirt, this will explain why my splits seem a bit up-and-down.

Mile four was still pretty flat and I decided to stretch the legs a little to the tune of a 7:32.68 (30:34.43) split. Mile five was more of the same in 7:38.15 (38:12.58). I took a Power Shot at the five mile mark and decided it was time to get rolling. I dropped a 7:24.48 (45:37.06) sixth mile through the first of our hills and followed up mile seven with a 7:34.86 (53:11.92). I passed a friend around the 7.5 mark and Tracy would come back to haunt me in the last mile and a half.

Mile eight gave us a brief respite from the bigger hills but presented us with a few rollers. I passed the eight mile mark in 1:00:35 with a 7:23.88 split. I knew that all I had to do at that point was run the last 5.1 miles in about 39:00 to go under the 1:40 Promised Land. I followed up with a 7:31.99 (1:08:07) ninth mile and was starting to feel the burn.

I knew if I could make it through Oak Ridge Cemetery and up the hill past Lincoln's Tomb to the ten mile mark without being in too much distress I could put myself in a good position to reach my Promised Land.

I had started the race wearing two shirts, sleeves, a headband and a pair of socks that were disposable gloves. I ditched the shirt a mile and a half in, the socks got dropped around three, the sleeves came off somewhere around seven and my awesome Nike headband came off a mile later and was stuffed down the back of my shorts with my sleeves.

As I headed into Oak Ridge I discovered that my good friend Patty (who likes to talk a lot of crap about how she is going to beat me in the longer stuff) was only about 30 seconds behind me with a bit over three miles to go. I smiled and yelled "good job" at her and headed down the long downhill into Oak Ridge. Once the bottom of said hill was reached you have to pull a u-turn and run up the hill past the Tomb and back out of the grounds. This is where I started my long and disastrous breakdown last year.

As I was powering effortlessly up the hill I felt a slight "twang" in my waistband about halfway up. Without breaking stride I looked back to see my beloved Nike headband laying forlornly in the middle of the road.

I left it where it was.

I ran the tenth mile in 7:24.68 and went through with a total time of 1:15:32, 22 seconds faster than last year and much more in control. I refused water at the next stop and ran up the last big hill into Lincoln Park. I ran too hard up the hill and felt my form start breaking up after cresting the hill and heading to the 11 mile marker about a quarter of a mile in. I tried latching onto a guy and having him pull me through and we went through the mile in 7:27.90 (1:23:00). I knew I was still in good shape to go under 1:40 and all I had to do was run 2.1 miles in 16:59.

As a final insult there is one last little incline heading out of Lincoln Park after which was a nice long, gentle downhill to the 12. I staggered up and out of the park, carrying my arms and starting to gasp and was unable to do much but put one foot in front of the other as I lost contact with the guy I'd been running with and was passed by Tracy and two other guys.

I ran my slowest mile in 7:58.80 and passed through 12 in 1:30.59. I had NINE minutes left and I knew that I'd need almost all of them. I spent the last 1.1 trying to get my arms to relax and to get my lungs to take in air and I willed myself to a 7:44.53 (1:38:43) split for my 13th mile.

I started graying out the last 0.1 and barely had enough presence of mind to hit my split time as I crossed the finish line in 1:39:25.

Once I finished I was held upright by Martha (who probably would have been the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen at that point IF I could have focused) and another finish line marshal who together ushered me into a chair and gave me one of those space blankets.

After sitting there for a good five minutes I staggered to my car for my dry clothes and into the post-race party for food and drink. My pals all ran well with Ben running 1:30:50, the Bionic Woman running in the 1:33 range, Tim finishing in the 1:34s, Tracy gunning me down by a minute and dear, sweet, crap talking Patty finishing not quite ten seconds behind me.

My official time: 1:39:21. Official place: 107th. Time improvement from last year: 5:25. Place improvement from last year: -4. That's right, I actually finished four places worse than last year.

I am VERY happy with my race. I think I could have done better if my training had been more consistent but I'm not going to complain about improving my PR by 4:02 on such a difficult course.

Next year I'm going to see if I can't drop another 4:02.

Exciting stuff

I got home this morning to find two exciting things waiting in the mail for me.

The first was a letter from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign informing me that the Department of Human Resource Education is recommending to the Office of Graduate Admissions that I be admitted to the online Master of Education program that is beginning with the Summer 2008 term.

The other exciting thing was my brand new copy of The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green.

I'm not gonna hold my breath

I ran today for the first time in a week. I felt very weird.

I had a nice day. It was about 55 degrees but there was a pretty nice wind out of the SE around 15 mph. I wore a long sleeve shirt, shorts and a ball cap and set out for an easy four miles just to see how the legs and lungs would feel.

I lifted yesterday for the first time in over a week and my shoulders were pretty tight from the pull-ups and shoulder presses I did. I also couldn't get myself to slow down. I wasn't paying attention and ran well past my one mile mark but still ran 8:03.38. Mile two was a bit short and I covered it in 7:53.96 (15:57.34). Mile three was even faster in 7:52.07 (23:49.41). I made myself slow down after that so I didn't finish in oxygen debt and ran my final mile in 8:01.26 for a total time of 31:50.67.

I only hacked a few times as I walked to my house and I immediately hopped in the shower and into some dry clothes afterwards. My chest feels pretty good but my nose is stuffy. I'm hoping that I feel less herky-jerky and congested as the week goes on and am able to make a reasonable accounting of myself in my half marathon on Saturday.

I'm throwing all expectations out and just hoping to run strong the whole race. I have no time goal other than to run faster than I did during my 13.1 training run on the old course (1:43:29) that made my IT Band flare up.

Anything under that is a bonus.